Columbus and the march for Italian pride

Camille Paglia

Friday October 13 2000, 1.00am, The Times

Camille Paglia

Friday October 13 2000, 1.00am, The Times

Last weekend in Denver, Colorado, a protest by American Indians stopped an Italian-American parade celebrating Columbus Day, a national holiday when banks, post offices, and schools are closed. The protesters blocked the street, chanted, beat drums, and burnt ceremonial cedar incense.

Christopher Columbus, born in Genoa, once hailed as the discoverer of the New World, has been regularly denounced as a symbol of “genocide” since the rise of political correctness in American education in the 1980s. The 1992 commemoration of the 500th anniversary of Columbus’s first voyage set off the present round of bitter controversy.

In Denver, the protester Kay Miller, who identified herself as an Indian from another Colorado town, shouted: “You don’t need a killer for a hero.” She told reporters: “I think